This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Once again it is Kaalu season! The Kaalu obsession has taken over the fanatics and we love to exploit its flavour in as many dishes as possible till the season lasts. I always wonder about how this simple and shiny green bean is capable of lending a magical aroma to any and every dish it touches! Even a simple straight forward Akki Uppittu is elevated to a star status when a handful of Kaalu is thrown in while cooking!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

After spending a rollicking good time at Sydney with my cute little granddaughter (and my daughter), I returned to Bangalore not only with a heavy heart but also with a heavy head, stuffy ears and blocked nose! Though a lot of hoohaa is being raised about global warming, the December chill of Bangalore still bites as always!

My aunt passed on the secrets of making this unique kuzhambu to me when I started craving for something hot, spicy and tangy to fight the cold and to rekindle life to my taste buds.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Bhapa Doi or Steamed Yoghurt (Better than Cheese Cake!)

Wish you all a very Happy Deepawali! May the festival of lights dispel darkness and
ignorance and bring all things bright and wonderful your way this year!

Fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge

This year we wanted to make a simple sweet dish of
Deepawali, but also something new which we haven’t tried before. Although as a
family we are mostly off sugar, we wanted to ensure Dib’s little daughter learns
to celebrate Deepawali with all traditions intact!She is fussy about food, and surprisingly
doesn’t have an affinity for sweets.She
loves her cheese though, and so we were thinking of a dish that she can enjoy
as well. We promptly zeroed on ‘Bhapa
Doi’ or ‘Steamed Curd’from the Bengali
cuisine. It looked easy enough to make as well.We tried it for the first time. It is surprisingly easy to
make and tastes amazing. It‘s texture is like cheese cake, and in fact tastes
far better than cheese cake without its dry biscuit crust! Weare thinking of adding fruit pulp the next
time we make it!

3.Blend yogurt and condensed milk together, using
a hand blender or whisk.

Whisk yoghurt and condensed milk.

4.Pour it into a bake proof bowl. We poured it
into small ramekins and we got about 6.

5.The ramekins need to be cooked in a Water Bath. To create a water bath, place the ramekins in a large baking tray (we used a
foil tray), and place in the oven. Very carefully fill with hot water upto ¾ height
of the ramekins. Be careful not to burn your hands, or spill water in the Doi!

Water Bath in the Oven

6.In the meanwhile soak the saffron strands in
warm milk.

7.After 25 minutes, open the oven carefully and top
the contents of each bowl with a little soaked saffron milk, and place one
cardamom on top. Breaking the pod a little, but without removing the seeds helps
in releasing flavours.

8.Again bake for ten minutes.

9.Remove from the oven, cover with cling film and chill
for few hours,( but best results are to chill overnight) before serving.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Dibs wanted to treat us and our cousins here at Sydney, to a
traditional Bengali dinner party. Though I have savoured Bengali food at her
in-laws’ home at Calcutta, I have never tried cooking any Bengali dishes till
now.When Dibs planned for a traditional
dinner consisting of 16 dishes, I was
very excited. Here was a chance to learn to cook new dishes from my daughter.

learnt that Ranga Aloor Puli or the
Stuffed Sweet Potato Jamoon is one of the manytraditional sweets prepared on auspicious occasions in a Bengali
household. When Dibs briefed me about the sweet, I confidently offered to
prepare it all by myself one day prior to the dinner. She shared with me the recipe
link of her very good Bengali friend, Indira Mukherjee, who is an accomplished cook
(among many other talents), and is a familiar face in Bengali TV channels with her recipes.

The recipe looked simple enough,
but little did I know of the various hitches that I would soon have to face at
every step! Here’s how I prepared it, along
with all the problems I encountered and the fixes as well!!

1.Cook the coconut, sugar (optional - you can also
add 1 cup of milk) together on low flame till it comes together into a mass.

2.Stir in ghee and cardamom powder, switch off
flame and transfer it to a container to avoid crystallization. The sweet
coconut filling should be soft enough to be shaped into balls.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE OUTER SHELL

Sweet potatoes – 2 big

Plain flour / Maida – 1 tbspRice flour -1 tbsp

Ghee - 1tsp

Salt – 1 pinch

METHOD TO PREPARE JAMOONS

Fat Sweet Potatoes!

1.Boil and peel the sweet potatoes.

HITCH 1:

I microwaved the sweet potatoes submerged in
water in the Tupperware steamer, for 10 minutes. The halved sweet potatoes cooked
outside and remained hard in the centre. I mentally ticked myself off, for
under-estimating the toughness of the big fat sweet potatoes

SOLUTION:

I then dumped them in the pressure cooker with
water in the cooker, but not in the pan with the potatoes and cooked until three
whistles.

Stubborn and uncooked in the centre!

2.Peel and mash the cooked sweet potatoes
smoothly.

HITCH 2:

I took out the sweet potatoes after the
pressure subsided. Peeled the still hot vegetable and mashed it with the back
of the ladle. Thesteam condensed into
it while mashing resulting in a very loose sweet potato mash. I regretted for
not having allowed the vegetable to cool down thoroughly before mashing.

3.Add the plain flour (maida), rice flour, ghee and salt
to the sweet potato mash and knead into dough. The original recipe called for
Khoa, which we didn’t add, as we didn’t have any!

Shell mixture with too much ghee!

HITCH 3:

Kneading was impossible because the dough
remained loose even after mixing in the flours. In addition, I added too much ghee, which made the dough even more slippery! I did not want to add more
flour as a fix as that would make the jamoons floury and perhaps very hard.

SOLUTION (not really!):

Dibs encouraged me to continue when I
started panicking, saying that if at all it went wrong we could always make a
kheer, and store the sweet potato for soup on another day.

4.Flatten a ball of dough in your palm, place a
ball of sweet coconut filling in the centre, pull the edges together and shape
it into a jamoon.

Mash filling on Mash shell!!

HITCH 4:

The mash stuck to the palms and there was
no way of stuffing or shaping it into a jamoon even when the palms were
greased.

SOLUTION:

I washed my hands, patted out the excess
water and left the palms still wet. I slapped a spoon of the sweet potato mash
on the wet palm and placed a ball of filling in the centre. Took another spoon
of the mash and placed it on top of the filling. Using the fingers gently I
covered the filling by plastering any
cracks or uncovered portions with more sweet potato paste just like a mason
would fill the cracks with cement slush!

5. Shape it like a jamoon fruit .

Rolling like dice with palm open - but gently!!!

HITCH 5

Shaping the paste? Out of question!

SOLUTION:

I gently tried to roll the ‘jamoon’ by tilting
my wet palm up and down, like I would roll the dice before casting, and gently
shaped both ends using the other hand. The jamoon was carefully slid on to a
flat plate dusted with flour. After making all the jamoons similarly, we
covered the plate using silver foil and left it in the refrigerator overnight,
with a big sigh.

Phew! Ready for the fridge!

6.Fry the jamoons to a dark brown colour and soak
them in sugar syrup.

Hitch 6:

Since I was nervous to handle the delicate
jamoons, Dibs took over the next morning. She carefully slid the jamoon into
hot oil .The first jamoon got burnt because the oil was too hot.The second one opened up and disintegrated in
spite of low heat, because Dibs tried to flip it too soon.

Burnt or Disintegrated - so sad! (Ignore potatos - they for another dish!)

SOLUTION:

Dibs slid the next two jamoons
into the oil on low flame. She did not touch the jamoons till the submerged
portion turned to a golden brown colour, and firm as well. She used a spoon and
gently turned over the golden jamoons one by one, and waited till they turned
into a deep brown colour. She could successfully removed the jamoons using a
perforated ladle, and placed them on a
paper towel! Cooking jamoons took a long time on low flame - almost 25 -30 minutes for one batch.

Finally getting somewhere on a low flame!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SUGAR SYRUP

Sugar – 3 cups

Rose water/rose essence – 1tbsp

METHOD TO PREPARE THE SYRUP

1.Add two cups of water to the sugar and cook on
low flame.

2.Cook till the syrup is sticky and remove from
flame before it reaches one thread consistency

3. Don't add the rose water yet!

METHOD TO SOAK THE JAMOONS IN SYRUP

1.Lower the first batch of drained jamoons into
the syrup.

2.Allow them to soak till the next batch is ready.

3.Remove the first batch of jamoons soaked in
syrup very carefully and place them in a wide mouthed serving bowl.

4.Fry and soak all the jamoons similarly.

5.Warm up the remaining sugar syrup just before
serving and add the rose essence.

6.Pour the rose flavoured syrup on the jamoons and
serve them immediately.

Sweet Success!

What we will do better next time:

1. Slice potatoes into 3 pieces at least, before pressure cooking it. We may need to cook only for two whistles.

2. Drain on a towel and allow potatoes to cool completely before mashing.

3. Add ghee sparingly.

4. Refrigerate overnight before frying.

5. Exhibit great patience, and fry on a low flame.

6. Not handle or flip the jamoons once dropped in oil, right until they turn completely rosy brown on one side.

7. Hold the 'kadai' and VERY GENTLY tilt to cover jamoons with oil, before attempting to turn them over to cook the other side.

Overall Verdict on Ranga Aloor Puli!

Yum Yum YUM!

The Sweet Potato Jamoons tasted amazing and unbelievably good! They were rich and delicious giving regular jamoons a run for their money! The coconut filling inside the jamoon is a genious idea, and transports you to another world, especially when its least expected inside a jamoon. The colour was rosy, and taste of sweet potato unmistakeable. We did not miss much by not adding khoa (or for that matter -instant jamun mix powders, as some websites suggest!!

Guests were intrigued and loved Ranga Aloor Puli, and it was a great hit in the
party. Dibs and I shared a secret grin, when the Sweet Potato Jamoons
were praised and by our finger-licking guests!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Dibs rushed back home from her shopping still unfinished, and dragged me back to the same Mall again. She said that a surprise awaited me at the Mall. We reached there after a fifteen minute walk. I was more than thrilled with what met my eyes! Kumar Pereira of 'Master Chef Australia' ( the popular cookery show ) fame was giving a promotional cooking demonstration!

The demonstration

The demo had just begun. There was not much of a crowd yet. And we witnessed a command performance by one of the most favoured Master Chefs of the 'Master Chef Australia' show. Knives and ladles were flying in his magical hands effortlessly!

The Master Chef in action

The very first dish that he prepared turned out to be Bruschetta, an easy to prepare vegetarian dish. (The other two dishes were non vegetarian ). Samples were served to the viewers by a girl who was done up as a mobile dining table!

The mobile table

Dibs and I were excited when we tasted the Bruschettas infused with a special flavour (what we call 'kai manam' in Tamil ) by the magical touch of the super Chef. We had the great opportunity to talk to him. Dibs got his autograph for my twelve year old grand daughter who is a great fan of 'Master Chef Australia', especially of Kumar Pereira.

Monday, October 22, 2012

I was very happy to visit a Durga Pooja festival held at Sydney, in a local school. Mother Goddess Durga dazzling in all her opulence took the center stage. A picture of Lord Shiva adorned the top. Idols of Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Ganesha and Kartikeya were positioned on Her either sides.

A Congrigation Of All Dieties

A banana tree dressed up in a saree represented Mother Nature.The gorgeously decorated and illuminated stage along with the sacred idols reminded me of our Navaratri Kolu.

Pushpaanjali

A priest was guiding the people in batches to offer their prayers (Pushpaanjali) with recitations of Sanskrit verses. Flowers, fruits, sweets and Aarati were offered to Durga Maata.
There were food stalls, and stalls which sold books, artifacts and trinkets outside the alter. Children danced to the disco music played on speakers. People bedecked specially for the occasion offered prayers and cheerfully interacted with their friends as they waited for the 'bhog ' to be served.

Samosas getting fried

Samosas and Brinjal Bajjis were being fried in huge kadais, full of smoking oil.

Brinjal bajjis

'Prasaads' consisting of cut fruits and interestingly, a ball of 'poornam' ( a mixture of coconut and jaggery cooked together) were distributed in paper plates.'Poornam' - it is symbolic of the 'infinite complete whole' or 'sweet bliss' which we call God. All the creations are manifestations of the same Sweet Bliss or 'Poornam'. Whatever the outer shell it is encased in, and whatever worldly ordeals it goes through, 'poornam' remains the same (infinite and complete) till it finally reunites with the infinite whole. Though the stuffed sweets go through different cooking methods like steaming as in Kozhukattais, roasting as in Polis, and frying as in Suhians, the inner Poornam remains intact and the same. It is to remember this eternal truth that Poornam stuffed sweets are always one of the offerings to the Divine on all special pooja occasions.

POORAN POLI RECIPE

INGREDIENTS TO MAKE POORNAM

Bengal Gram Dal - 2 cups

Powdered jaggery - 2 cups

Cardamom powder - 1/4tsp

Ghee - 3 tbsps

METHOD TO MAKE THE POORNAM

1. Soak the Bengal gram dal for half an hour .

2. Pressure cook soaked dal with 1 cup of water till it gives out three whistles and switch off flame, and allow cool down.

3. Remove cooked dal from the cooker and drain well.

Cooked and drained dal

4. Grind the cooked and drained dal with powdered jaggery into a thick paste.

Palm Sugar used instead of Jaggery

5. Heat ghee in a thick bottomed pan and add the ground paste.

6. Keep stirring till the poornam leaves the sides of the pan and a pleasant aroma of the caramalised jaggery fills the atmosphere.

Poornam

7. Switch off flame , mix in the cardamom powder and allow the poornam to cool down.

INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THE OUTER COVER

1. Plain flour / Maida - 2 cups

2. Salt - 1 pinch

3. Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

4. Sesame oil - 4 tbsps

METHOD TO MAKE THE OUTER COVER

1. Sift maida, salt and turmeric powder into a bowl.

2. Add 2 tbsps of sesame oil and mix well.

3. Add water little by little and knead the flour into a smooth and elastic dough.

4. Smear one more tbsp of sesame oil on top and cover the ball of dough with a lid.

Dough

5. Allow the dough to soak for one hour. The more it soaks the more it becomes pliable and elastic.

METHOD TO MAKE THE KADALAI PARUPPU POLI / POORAN POLI

1. Grease a banana leaf or a plastic sheet with a liberal sprinkle of oil.

2. Take out a lime size ball of dough and place it on the greased surface.

Dough ball smaller than the Poornam ball

4. Take out a ball of poornam, double the size of the dough ball and place it in the middle of the patted poorie.

Poornam ball on flattened dough

5. Pull the edges of the poorie over the poornam and press to seal.
﻿

Edges pulled over Poornam

6. Invert the stuffed poorie and again start patting it evenly into a poli, so that the poornam spreads out evenly inside the maida cover.

'Patting' Poli

7. Heat a greased tava and gently place the flattened poli on it.

Poli cooking on a tava

8. Cook on low flame till the raw look on the top of the poli disappears and flip it to the other side.

Flipped

9. Cook till golden brown coloured patches appear on both sides and remove the poli on to a flat plate.Similarly make all the Polis on low heat.

Chitra Amma's Recipes

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.